Glass Pieces
by Orange Diary
Summary: Light Yagami knows a second chance when he sees one. When he finds himself possessing his sister's body, is it the end of his plans? Meanwhile, Near receives a message predicting the arrival of a new Kira. Warning: gender-switch, mentions of character deaths.
1. Chapter 1: Second Chance

**Welcome to my first fanfic! To be honest I never thought I could write a fic until not too long ago. But after being bitten and re-bitten by plot bunnies I gave in. My first ideas were nothing like what Glass Pieces is - they mostly consist of wild adventures of Naruto characters in nonNaruto-verse, though they all wilted before they started. Glass Pieces is my precious baby story, so please read and tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.**

* * *

**Prologue**

_He knows it is Ryuk when something seizes up inside his ribcage. That eternity when time stops completely and he can't feel anything except the brightness of the sun and his own breath stuck in his chest and Ryuk is writing, oh God, Ryuk has written his name…Ryuk! He doesn't want to die! He can't die not here not now not when the sunlight is so damn piercing… Fear clenches his heart, spiralling up his windpipe and locking his jaw._

_And L is just standing beyond the railing, watching._

_He is here for his death, the gloating bastard. He wants to see what he could not achieve himself finished by his successor. Right? _

_Wrong. Because **he **won. He killed him and he's dead and he died before he knows and he won but why isn't he looking at him? Does he not want to acknowledge him, even now? The delusional fool. _

_Look at me! He wants to yell. I was smarter. I was faster. And that's why you are the one standing in the shadow and I am bathing in light. But he can't unclench his jaw and his heart is crumbling in on itself and he can't see the light anymore and he doesn't want to die. _

_Why can't he see his face?_

_Dad, he thinks, latching onto a fragmented image. Mum. Please._

_I don't want to die._

* * *

**Chapter 1: Second Chance**

_"Don't be conceited. I only dropped the notebook. You think you were chosen?" _

Light Yagami knew a second chance when he saw one.

It wasn't so much the light and colour he registered. After all, pictures in your mind were called visualising. Snapshots of images were commonly known as imagination. When a familiar string of them slipped through your consciousness you would recognise them as memories.

But sound was different. It was sharp and distinct in your mind that was impossible to be present in a dream. People's voices in dreams were less heard but rather_ understood_. Dreams were, in another word, soundless.

At least Light Yagami's dreams were soundless. So when he heard the slipping of soft slippers soles on wooden floorboards and the painfully familiar creaks of the stair railings he knew he was alive.

He was alive? He was alive! The hows and the whys were drowned out by a flood of relief and elation.

He was alive. He was home. He was Light Yagami.

_L,_ he wanted to laugh. _Can you see this? I killed you and you're dead, you killed me but I'm alive. Who's the winner, huh?_

He lifted his hands to his eyes. He never thought being alive was this exhilarating. He could hear his own ragged breathing to the solid rhythm of his heartbeat. Everything so was overwhelmingly dizzying he couldn't hold his hands still. They trembled as he curled his fingers. He almost couldn't feel them. It was like his mind and body were functioning separately, and he was watching on the other side of a lens, through which every drop of colour, every thread of sound was highlighted and thrown back into his mind. He dissected them like a glass prism to a rainbow, and greedily inhaled all.

_L, oh L,_ he thought giddily. _How laughable, this situation is. What do you think? They all thought it was over. The despicable albino brat thought it was over. How utterly laughable._

And now, he, Light Yagami, was going to turn the tables on him, grant him a taste of what it felt to be completely defeated. He would collapse his fortress like a house of cards, watch his face when he realised his confidence was really erected on paper-thin ice, watch him skate along intricate threads destined for Hell.

He would achieve it.

His vision focused onto the back of a chair and he reached out.

Suddenly tiles loomed. Cold diffused through the skin of his palm. He realised with a lurch that he was on the ground, his nails finding purchases in the cracks.

His eyes burned. Somebody was screaming. No, _he_ was screaming. Rasping wretchedness tore out of his throat in truncated shrieks. Tiles morphed into black holes shuddering soundlessly, the cold, fogged up glass and his crushing heartbeats… but he was lifted by soft hands and warm shoulders.

He was crying?

Transparent droplets suspended in his vision, hung on shaking brown tresses, tickling his nose. It was the scent of his mother. He stopped screaming. A wave of tiredness washed through him and he pressed closer, his thoughts somewhat lost.

"Mum," he rasped. Her arms tightened around his shoulders and he felt her whisper into his neck. "Sayu, Sayu..." she said, over and over again.

_Sayu?_

The pit of his stomach tumbled and he was suddenly aware of the cold seeping through his shins, his mother holding onto him like she never wanted to let go.

_Hold on, Sayu?_

Something happened to Sayu. Something that he didn't know about. Something so significant that had rendered his mother shaking on the dining room floor. Possibilities rammed into his heart, knocking out his breath and he gasped, the awful question unwilling to be shaped on his tongue. He curled and uncurled his fingers by the warmth of his mother's body.

She unfolded her elbows and held him at arm's length. "Sayu," her gaze caressed the contour of his face. Tears dipped into the corners of her mouth, which curved into a grimace of a smile. "I have you. Mummy is here for you. Always."

Her face collapsed and she crushed him once again to her chest with a ferocity that sparked fear in him.

"Sayu… I'm so glad. Mummy is so glad you're here."

* * *

In his entire life, Light Yagami had never been recognised as 'Sayu Yagami's brother'. Nobody said "Hey, that guy. That's Sayu's brother. Apparently he's really smart." Though once when he waited around the corner at Sayu's school, he overheard a conversation between two boys in uniform. One said, "You know Sayu Yagami? You know, from Art? Yeah, apparently she's Light Yagami's little sister. I know right? She's in my Geo too."

The truth was, there were plenty of times when he was associated with his sister, and vice versa, and consequently compared, but the connection was never established on their physical similarities.

That was why, in the mirror now, he saw nothing of himself.

Sayu's hand reached up to cup Sayu's face, Sayu's trimmed nails brushed over Sayu's scalp. Her skin had turned so pale it took on a somewhat transparent quality, Light realised. Due to months of inactivity in a wheelchair, Sayu had become so fragile she couldn't stand for more than half a minute without leaning on her desk for support. The lively air that usually surrounded her had disintegrated into something almost dead, like dust over unpolished glassware. Her chin-length fringe dangled limply in strand in front of her dark-rimmed eyes, lighter and stringier than he had imagined.

He never remembered her to look so haggard and gaunt. Though the reason may lie within his obsession with his ultimately fruitless plan to wipe out the Task Force and the SPK before his death, due to which he never visited home.

_No, the plan wasn't flawed to begin with. It was all Mikami's stupidity._ He scowled but Sayu's face glared back at him. It shocked him into tottering backwards and bumping into a bed, his knees buckled and he collapsed on the soft mess.

_I'll take a shower,_ he thought shakily. _Warm water always makes thinking easier._

Taking a shower proved to be much more physically demanding than he thought would be. He avoided facing the mirror for the most parts but it still felt so... wrong. It wasn't like he had no knowledge of the female anatomy or that he never saw his sister naked (though that last time was when he was twelve and she was nine, under their mother's order to bring Sayu a towel, and a lot had changed since then), in fact, knowledge of such issues was unavoidable when you shared an apartment with a girlfriend (especially as said girlfriend was not at all modest by nature).

It felt wrong because this body wasn't supposed to be his.

_It's because the mass distribution is different,_ he concluded. After having his whole life getting used to his own body, whether you were a tennis genius or not, it was all back to square one. So he took the safer option of plugging up the drain for a bath instead, to lessen the risk of injury.

"Sayu," his mother called from behind the door. "Are you showering?"

"Yes!" he hollered over the noise of running water and the fan. Or least he tried to yell, but his voice, more accurately Sayu's, seemed to have weakened a lot. He couldn't even shout one word without the end cracking.

"Do you need any help?" God! Did she really think… well, maybe Sayu did need to be bathed before. He didn't care enough to know these things.

"No, I'm alright, Mum."

"Okay, then. Be careful." She walked off but came back a moment later. "If you need any help, just yell. I'll hear you from the kitchen. Alright?"

"Mhm_," Light Yagami versus common porcelain bathroom facility? Ridiculous._

The water is gradually filling up and his plan for thinking time was about to go down the drain. All he wanted to do now is sleep. He vaguely heard her say something else and something rang like a doorbell. Or was that the phone?

_Now to proper thinking._ Right now, he needed to find out the Task Force's current status, as well as that of Near's. _Near_… his mood darkened instantly. Now that he had a second chance, he was going to make that egotistical little snot regret ever being born into this world.

That being said, there was also the question of whether he was actually still alive at the moment. How much control did he have over Sayu's body? He couldn't assume it was his soul that entered Sayu's body. For all he knew, there could be no such things as souls. It could be his memories. He could be lacking in some crucial information regarding the Note's effect on the memory of the user. The _dead_ user.

In that case, why Sayu of all people? It could be the fact that Sayu was close to him in his childhood, so their memories may have had overlaps. Light dismissed this option instantly. Despite being in a similar environment and exposed to similar external stimuli, he, older by four years and by far more mature than his sister would have a completely different perspective to the same experience. So it would not be because of their memory ties.

It could be due to affection and loyalty on her part that allowed him to gain control of her body. But when it comes to devotion Sayu could not have been the one who loved him most. If love were the key, he would most likely be strutting around in blond pigtails by now. So that wasn't it.

One way or another, logically, if his memories did in fact replace Sayu's, it would indicate that Sayu had none when he occupied her mind. She lost hers on that day in a glass box.

He sighed with exhaustion. The waterline was creeping up incredibly slowly. _I'll be asleep before it fills up, dammit._

He rubbed his eyes. At this moment it should be _his_ mind at work, right? If it was Sayu's limited collection of neurons and glial cells delivering electric impulses right now, it would explain his current unfocused thoughts and his high susceptibility to fatigue. After all, if he could survive synchronising his biological rhythm to the activity pattern of a true insomniac, succumbing to hot water was out of the question.

And here was another question. It was February 19 today. He died more than three weeks ago. Why was there a gap? Why three weeks? He signed again. It was probably better to think about what he was going to do now rather than putting more stress on Sayu's body.

He would get his hands on the notebook. That was a given. It was what his second chance was for.

_I do need a bit more details to actually start planning,_ He frowned. _I'll start from Matsuda. Being Sayu actually has…_

Suddenly, it felt like somebody had gotten a hold of his head and was crushing his skull between their palms. The excruciating pressure forced his face to scrunch up and his fingers scratched the bottom of the tub in convulsion.

_What…?_

Then as suddenly as it started, the strain disappeared as if it was never there, leaving him feeling somewhat light and deflated.

"What is…? I'm back?" Light heard Sayu's voice said, and he had a sudden, horrible notion that _he_ did not say that.

He tried shaping his right hand into a fist but it didn't respond. _Oh crap._

"Mum! _Mum!_ HELP!" Sayu cried. There were hurried footsteps and a crash. Then it continued dashing up the stairs. "MUM!"

Right before the door burst open, a thought struck Light. In his previous life he was a lying, two-faced bastard. And now, given a second chance, he had become a girl with a split personality. Was that his punishment for playing with people's lives?

* * *

**And so it begins... **

**Glass Pieces is going to be a multi-chapter fic, though it will be pretty short-I'm predicting 5 or 6 chapters. I will be updating approximately monthly, hopefully more frequent than that. ****Don't worry, I won't abandon it! I know it sucks to follow an abandoned story. And like I said, Glass Pieces is my brain child after all. So please review! Pick up any mistake I've made, tell me whether you think it's good or bad, or there's something terribly wrong with my entire fic. I must say I've never written much in my life or taken my English Exams seriously (English was my worst nightmare last year, and I'm not taking any English related course this year). But I haven't found the antidote to plot bunny poisoning so yeah, I'm stuck writing this when I should be calculating forces in Popsicle-stick bridges. Anyway, I look forward to your reviews!**


	2. Chapter 2: Through Glass

**I lied. I said I was going to update monthly but it's now two months. Reasons being evil projects and eviler exams. I'm terribly sorry so please don't hate me, guys.**

**Anyway, now that I have another two weeks of schoolessness in front of me I'll try to pull something out of my hat soon. But for now, please enjoy the second chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Through Glass**

_"Yo, Matsui. It's me, Asahi. How ya doing my man?"_

Since he took control of his sister's body, the idea of losing it had never entered Light Yagami's mind. Why would he? It was an opportunity and even fools wouldn't let it slip out of their grasps. Now he knew he had made a mistake. He had assumed that the swap was 'meant to be'. He forgot, momentarily, that his sister's body was not entitled to him, nor was it in any way a 'meant to be' scenario.

And now, he was stuck between frustration and a childish sense of loss; if he had known he only had so little time, he would have done something. At least something more than just sitting around and running a bath that he didn't have time to enjoy.

He turned his attention back to Sayu's own awareness. Now this was a strange situation.

It was like watching a film, the camera dipping and swaying in sync to whatever the director wanted you to focus on. The only difference is that no film director would torture their audience with such dizzying frames. With his vision torn towards objects in sudden lurches, Light was feeling increasingly exasperated and not just a little sick.

He wondered if it was what Sayu felt before she came back.

He kept trying to settle his sight on a particular person seated just to the left, but Sayu's eyes only ever flitted from Sachiko's face and down to the smooth rim of her mug.

"I, I… Mum, I was so scared," she babbled. Sachiko rubbed her back soothingly. "Someone else was talking, and moving and I wasn't… It wasn't me!"

"It's okay, everything is fine now," Sachiko said repeatedly. Sayu didn't believe her, or couldn't hear her.

"I couldn't do anything." she said again, and lapsed into silence. She gripped her mug and watched the steam unfold from the surface of the liquid.

The clock on the wall ticked four times. The heater hummed stagnantly. Matsuda hissed from where Band-Aid touched broken skin.

"Had I been a nuisance?" Sayu whispered.

"Oh Sayu," Sachiko said. "Of course you weren't! We were worried but that's because we care for you. It's been so long since I've heard your voice."

She motioned towards Sayu's tea.

"Hurry and finish it before it gets cold," she turned to the dining room. "Do you need some antiseptic, Matsuda?"

"No I'm fine, thanks," Matsuda gave a nervous smile.

"How... How long?" Sayu stared at Sachiko with wide eyes. Sachiko took a moment to understand.

"Oh! Around five months or so."

"Five?" Sayu squeaked.

"Yes," Sachiko replied and moved to the kitchen to fill up the kettle again. "A lot of things have happened."

Sayu hunched unmovingly over her mug.

_That's right,_ Light thought. _Things happened._

He was getting rather tired of this conversation. Couldn't they just spit it out already? That way he could at least gloat over Matsuda's misery when he realized Sayu would hate him for killing her brother, regardless of the justice behind it.

Sayu exhaled and set her tea down, giving a start when she noticed Matsuda, and her hands darted up to smooth down her hair. She fiddled with the towel around her neck self-consciously – her appearance was not exactly sightly.

"Hi, Matsuda. What are you doing here?"

Matsuda stood up and leaned on the table.

"Hi, Sayu. Um... I was just, um..."

"Matsuda is very caring, Sayu." Sachiko interrupted. "He came around quite often to see you when you were sick."

Matsuda shrivelled back into his seat on hearing that. There was another pause, filled by vigorous scrubbing sounds from the kitchen.

"Ah, well, thank you," Sayu said. She picked up her mug once more and looking around the room. It felt somewhat different. The furniture was in the right place, the heater was on, everything looked just as clean. Then it hit Light; it was too empty. Besides the bare essentials, everything else – the vase, the tablecloth, his trophies – was gone.

_Where's everything?_ He wanted to ask.

"Where's Dad?" Sayu asked.

Matsuda visibly stiffened. Sachiko turned to Sayu, her mouth opened but nothing came out. Tension stretched across a tangible thickness.

Sayu blinked.

_Here it comes,_ Light thought.

Matsuda answered her, surprisingly.

"I'm s... Your father has passed away. I'm very sorry."

In situations like this, most people would be more than happy to take it as a joke. But Sayu was emotionally and physically drained, and Sachiko's expression spoke more than ten thousand "really?" and twenty thousand "really." There was nothing left for Sayu except crushing grief and excruciating regret.

"No!" She stared at Sachiko, who avoided her eyes in response. Sayu's metallic mug clunked heavily against wooden floorboards. Clear liquid splashed on her slipper and bled around her sole.

"No..." she whispered. Her gaze swam from Sachiko to Matsuda and back but she saw only his face, his rugged beard and lined eyes. "It's not… It can't be..."

The last time she saw him was only days ago, yet it was five months; her memory of him was so lively, yet he was dead. Her body, her mind, her memory, everything, _everything_ was a lie.

She clutched her head and screamed.

To Light it was almost as if the space surrounding him splintered into shards. Black crackled in vertical fissures around him, through him. He screamed because the cracks were black holes and the gaps contained nothingness that was hungry for his very material. The vibrating air rolled across his skin – funny, this was the first time he realised he had skin – and he thought he was going to explode, dashed to pieces by inky lightning. Beyond the static filled void he could still hear Say's screams. When her sobs died after an eternity, only then did Light's storm stop. He let the ground catch him and laid there. It felt like carpet.

When he opened his eyes again, Matsuda was gone and Sayu had a new mug. Sachiko hovered over her tight-lipped.

"How's Light?" Sayu rasped, exhausted. "Does he know about Dad?"

"Shh," Sachiko placed Sayu's hands on the outside of the mug. "You don't have to worry about anything besides yourself right now. Do you still want a shower?"

"No, I want to go to bed," Sayu rejected the tea and leaned back into the sofa. "Is he still living with Misa?"

"Don't worry about that," Sachiko started walking towards Sayu's room. "Do you want me to fix up the electric blanket?"

Her words set off a chorus of alarm bells inside Sayu's head. She grabbed the hem of Sachiko's sweater.

"What happened to him?" She demanded. Sachiko turned to her slowly, her stoicism from before was unravelling, fast.

"Sayu," She said. "Please."

Sayu let go of her.

"What happened?" Horror crept into her voice. "What happened to Light?" She was almost screeching. "_Why won't you tell me_?"

Sachiko fell heavily into an armchair and covered her face with her hands.

"He's dead too, isn't he," Sayu whispered, watching her mother's shoulders shake. "He's… dead."

* * *

_He had been wandering through this place for a while now. All the distorted reflections had ceased being frightening and strange, and instead they were grating on his nerves. Who wouldn't be annoyed, when the only things they could see around them were mangled versions of themselves?_

_His soles slipped on pieces on the floor that bumped and ground hollowly against each other, producing the only sound he could hear, the only indication that he was a living, _animate_ person, trudging through this dead glass infinity._

_He initially thought it was rather beautiful, in a pitiful way. It was like a set on the stage of a tragedy, designed to cage in the audience's despair and sympathy while the hero of the tale spiralled into madness. While Light had no intension of playing the tragic hero, it still felt like a trap of some sort, one that was created solely for him._

_The larger scraps would sometimes crack, jolting his nerves. Every now and then he thought he would fall and impale himself on the spikes and broken edges. _

_He briefly thought he heard Sayu, or somebody calling out, and he felt a hint of a presence behind him. He was about to turn when his breath caught in his throat and his heart throbbed hard, once. Then it was gone._

_Light could have sworn that, just for a moment, he had glimpsed his father's figure slip across the reflective surfaces around him._

* * *

_Wednesday 24 Feb,_ Sayu's pen scratched across the pastel coloured page. She then drew an umbrella and a sad face next to it.

_I think Mum thinks I'm depressed. _She began. _I'm not. People are meant to grief alone. She told me to talk to my friends from school, but it's not like I can just walk up to them and say, "Hey, I'm not sorry that I haven't been spending time with you cos I was sleeping the whole time then my dad and brother died." They would just gossip and then the whole campus would know about it._

She scrunched up her face and added angry eyebrows to the sad smiley.

_I did phone Chieri, Akane and Maki. Akane was very nice and she didn't ask me tell her about anything, not like Chieri. Chieri even wanted to know HOW they died. What the hell? Mum won't even tell me anything. Chieri can be such a cow sometimes. Akane was understanding so I told her I think Kira murdered them. _

Her hand trembled. She thought about crossing out the last sentence but Kira was a murderer, not a god. Besides, many people hated him too, like Akane.

_Akane said she understands how I feel cos she has a close childhood family friend (I think he's her secret boyfriend) whose father was killed by Kira quite a few years ago. He was a banker and the police suspected him in a robbery so Kira killed him. I never knew Akane hates Kira before. She had always been so against crime and all that._

Sayu wanted to end there, but she just began a new page and it looked bad with half a line hanging on top. So she continued.

_I'll go to the station and ask Matsuda tomorrow. He will tell me the truth about what really happened. _

She closed the glittery notebook and turned off the lamp. It would be a long day tomorrow.

* * *

"It's called hybrid vigour, shinigami," Near said, and Rester almost wanted to ask which aspect of education in Near's strange upbringing could touch on genetics. "If you want to say something, then say it."

The truth was, Near did not know what that was exactly, really. Not as much as he would have preferred, as someone who spoke with so much certainty and conviction. He had simply wanted the bow-legged thing out of his sight.

The shinigami in question turned to him with a hopeful look.

"Can I get some of those high-bid vigour?"

Near briefly wondered what its previous companion had thought about its stream of endless requests and complaints.

"Do whatever you want."

"You sure? 'Cus humans don't react well to their apples floating off by themselves. Can't you get that black-haired guy to buy me some?"

"Gevanni is in Japan."

Near watched its departure though the steel-reinforced wall. His gaze skimmed past a triangle of pristine tiles protruding from under clusters of domino towers, and stopped abruptly on something that should not be here. _Someone_.

The stranger had come out of nowhere. Near wasn't sure what his initial feelings were when he spotted that figure, crouching on one of the few office chairs on the entire floor. The barefooted creature seemed relaxed, terribly so, as if he could not comprehend the implications of his intrusion on the territory of the current L. His posture was mocking, a picture of engrossment, face hidden behind his reading material.

Near's first coherent thought hit him violently, and it was nothing as comical as the scene before him.

Rester was down.

Then it occurred to him shortly that a breach in security, however impregnable, did not automatically warrant the death of the watch-keeper.

"Rester, identify the immediate intruder within this room."

There was a pause on the other end, and he almost embraced the dreaded fear that had crept up on him.

"Ah...can you specify his location?"

Rester's confusion was evident, and the weight in Near's chest morphed into a mixture of relieve and bewilderment. It had only been less than a month when he established a surveillance system covering every single room from every angle. Rester's failure to locate the intruder was simply impossible. Even if the infrared arrangement was not fully in place, this room had been the first to be installed with such detection cameras.

"Identify yourself." He didn't bother with niceties. This was his territory, his space, his empire of kingdoms of cards and unfaltering trains and triumphant dominoes, and indisputably his. Only the foolish of fools would challenge him.

The man's object of interest was lowered by a fraction in an almost deliberately sarcastic manner, and Near suddenly caught sight of two horrifically familiar words etched over the cover.

_It couldn't be._

How did this man, with no visible tools, managed to remove the Note from its safe of alloyed metal, multiple-combination dials and booby-traps?

And as he struggled to organise his thoughts, it came to him.

A shinigami. That would explain why Rester could not detect such an intrusion. Then it would also mean that the black notebook he was clutching in that peculiar way of his was not the same as the one in Near's possession.

The man's unblinking eyes met Near's over the top of the Note.

_When?_ Near rewound his memory at sixteen times the original pace_. When had he touched paper?_

"It seems like you have missed something, Near." The stranger said.

"Near," Rester interrupted, "do you need any assistance?"

"Not yet," Near replied.

The obnoxiously vague statement could be interpreted in two ways. Literally, he could be saying that there was somehow a loophole in the security, and this person had bypassed it, for all the elaborateness of its state-of-art surveillance system. On the other hand it could be aimed at Near personally, as a sort of provocation regarding his competency as L's replacement.

One of Rester's screens snapped to a plain white background. Lidner's voice cut into the flurries of activity in the room as he was poised over the controls, issuing out orders to guards.

"Rester, can you give me our budget figure for black-market purchases?" She paused. "Also, how much exactly is considered high-bid?"

* * *

**Thanks for reaching the end of this plotless chapter; please tell me if I've made any mistakes and suggestions for improvement is always, always welcome. By the way I'm not sure if people actually write Diaries this way, since the closest thing I have to a diary is a rant journal and it's not orange. Yeah, I know. I'm a random person. One of my hobbies is generating passwords.**

**Just some extra stuff you can ignore: the first chapter now is actually an edited version of its former self, because it had too much ranting and someone pointed out that inserting Japanese words in an English writing is weird so I changed that, for consistency's sake. The editing process destroyed my mind. It was that hard. Also, I upped the rating because I'm paranoid.**


	3. Chapter 3: Fragility

**Here's your third chapter, guys! Luckily I managed to finish it before school starts on Monday. It's extra long, because I didn't plan it properly and it's also to make up for the fact that there won't be fortnightly updates in the near future.**

**One OC enters the fray this chapter, sorry OC haters. It's just that Kira's killing streak left not that many people alive at the end of the series :/**

**A quick reply to my two guest reviewers so far:  
****Asura: thank you so much for your compliment! I couldn't have gotten through the second chapter without your encouragement.  
****Guest: I'm really glad you like my story, and there is nothing that gives me more motivation than knowing others enjoy reading my work. I'm not too sure what you mean, but if you were talking about my nervousness then you are right; I am rather unsure about this fic, it being my first story and all. Hopefully it will be up to your expectation!**

**Thanks heaps to all of you who faved, followed or reviewed my story! This chapter could not have been born without you guys!**

**There will also be another very long a/n on the bottom so I'll leave you now to the story. I hope you like it.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Fragility**

"_If you're wrong, you just have to say 'sorry'."_

"It's only temporary. Who knows, maybe all the scary glass pieces will turn out to be something lovely," Dr Onoda looked at her warmly. Sayu wondered if this was really her 'client face' and she wouldn't look like that after work. She was probably not a very happy woman. With her job of smiling at suicidal teenagers and wannabe murderers every day, how much smile did she have left for herself? "By the way, how is your mother, Sayu?"

"She's doing well, I guess." Sayu said. She tried not break off eye contact but if she didn't, it might feel like a staring contest. "She's been getting out a lot lately. I think she's spending more time with our extended family and her friends."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Sayu replied. Was the doctor expecting an answer? "She is…um, smiling more." She reassured herself that she did not make the last part up on the spot.

"That's wonderful," The doctor capped her pen and dropped it into a porcelain mug that had 'Keep Calm and Be Yourself' in glittery gold. It let out a sharp clang. "Well then, Sayu," She said, glancing at the clock. "I'm afraid our enjoyable session has to come to a close, now that it's a quarter past twelve." She stood up. Sayu did too and bowed to thank her. "Remember to smile." She waved.

Sayu escaped the stifling building into windy, wet streets. People hurried passed her, eager to find shelter before the next rain cloud could empty itself over their heads. She was somewhat glad about the weather though – it hid the fact that she used her umbrella as a walking cane more than its supposed function.

"I'm normal," Sayu told the man leaning against a lamppost, watching her. He glanced at the clinic's sign behind her with raised eyebrows and nodded back. She felt frustration bubbling up her chest. _They think they understand everything, don't they? _She sniffed, and channelled the negative energy into purposeful strides towards the nearest subway entrance.

The NPA headquarters was only four stations away but it felt like days before she reached it. The inside of the carriage was wetter than outside. Sayu found her face in a stranger's rain-coated jacket and someone else's umbrella dripping into her boots. She breathed a sigh of relief upon arrival. Sachiko had wanted her to take the bus, and even if she had argued against it, Sayu was still a bit apprehensive about the trip herself.

_I'm completely back to normal now,_ she thought cheerfully while huffing up the never-ending stairs to the exit. People shuffled forward in a drawn out sandwich of dark hair and sharp elbows, all aiming for the frame of daylight in front. Then Sayu's light was suddenly blocked out by a black shape. It forced past her, detaching her grip on the railing and shoving her into the man next to her. The man bumped into a stilettoed woman in the 'entrance' lane who let out an unanswered protest.

But Sayu didn't see that. Her soles slipped over the edges of the steps. Once, twice and just when she thought she had regained her balance, it was lost to buffeting shoulders and handbags. She pitched backwards and fell.

Vaguely she heard someone yell her name. She scrabbled futilely along the wall but the railing was so far away. No one was going to catch her. The ceiling tilted.

Large hands grasped hers and she jerked to a stop, then rebounded into a man's arms. He set her down as if she was a doll. People around let out a chorus of breaths and nervous sighs. The man handed Sayu her umbrella.

"Th-thank you," She looked up at the man and to her surprise he was a complete stranger. He flashed her miniscule smile and bent his huge frame to pick up several plastic bags near his feet. "I'm so sorry!" Sayu was horrified. She rushed to the bottom of the stairs to rescue a packet of croissant. "I'm sorry you had to drop all this. Did anything break?"

"It's okay," The man took the croissant. Despite their height difference, Sayu did not feel very intimidated, which was unexpectedly nice, because this was one of the few times she had met a man who was a head taller than her father was. He turned towards the exit. "Please be careful." He said.

"I will, thanks! Um, bye!" She waved.

She stood there for a few second listening to her still racing heart before following the crowd out of the station.

Her destination was in a couple of minutes' walk and she arrived unscathed through the square archway. Some people would recognise her, back when she used to bring Soichiro dinner. However this time, no one smiled at her or said, "Hi, Sayu. Things for your dad?" The lobby was empty save the lonely reception and a wet floor sign.

She approached the desk and exaggerated her footfall in the last few steps. One of the receptionists looked up at her politely.

"How may I help you, ma'am?"

"I'd like to see an officer working here. His name is Matsuda." She told him.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," He said. "Can you come back after two? It's lunch break soon."

"It's urgent," Sayu leaned forward. "And I won't take very long."

He clicked something on his computer. "Can I please have your name?"

"Yagami. Sayu Yagami."

The receptionist looked startled for a second.

"Right. Um, just a moment, Miss Yagami." He furrowed his eyebrows. "What time is your appointment?"

"I don't have one," Sayu said quickly. "But tell him Sayu Yagami is here. He will see me."

"Ah, well," The receptionist looked to the other man at the desk, who ignored him. "Okay. What is his name again, please?"

Sayu told him. He tapped something on his keyboard.

"Let's see… There are quite a few Matsuda's here. Can I please have his full name?"

"Matsu…" Sayu began before it came to her that 'Matsuda' was not a full name. _Darn!_ If she said he was 'that' tall, had a fringe 'that' long, not only would she be describing half of the Japanese male population but the man would also start to question whether Matsuda actually knew a Sayu Yagami.

_It's Touta. _She heard a voice said. She whipped her head around. The lobby was empty.

"Hold on," She turned and smiled nervously back at the receptionist. "Let me think for a sec."

_Touta Matsuda. _Said the voice again. She gripped her umbrella tightly.

"Touta," She said to the man. "His name is Touta."

* * *

_Someone was tapping on Matsuda's desk. It was a rhythmic sound – slower than his breathing, yet faster than his heartbeat. He wondered what they could be doing, knocking on his door this late. Oh, silly. It was a desk, not a…_

"Matsuda! Are you listening to me?" An extra loud rap woke him up. "Matsuda!"

"Ah yes. Actually, no," Matsuda rubbed his eyes and looked at Ide, who stood over him, unamused. "What were you saying?"

Ide sniffed and sat back down. "I was just wondering whether he replied."

"Who? Near?"

Ide casted a glance around the room, filled with busy and not so busy bodies, then fixed Matsuda with a stare. "Yes."

Matsuda rubbed his nose sheepishly. "Yeah. Aizawa said yesterday that he did. He should've texted you, I think."

"What did he say?" Ide pulled his phone out of his briefcase and turned it on.

"Something like 'it's stupid and pointless, but I'll look into it'." Matsuda yawned loudly. "I'm so hungry! When is lunch?"

"Now," Ide said, shaking his phone. It did not catalyse the boot-up process.

"I'm just in time then," Matsuda grinned, and pushed himself up to walk towards Aizawa's office. Ide snorted.

Since the chief's passing, Aizawa had taken over. Matsuda was glad, because he could still visit the office whenever he wanted and it reminded him of his old job, the not-quite-secretary-like shadow. The fact that Aizawa was filling Soichiro's worn leather seat chased away some of the hollowness about the room. Aizawa was a good man and a good chief. Still, Matsuda could not help missing the family photo that had been replaced by a faded square on the wall.

"Matsuda," Aizawa greeted when he pushed opened the door. "You've got ink on your face."

"Oh," Matsuda rubbed his cheeks. He must have slept on some bad printing.

Aizawa stretched. "Had a bad night?" He grunted.

"Yeah," Matsuda said. "Someone moved in downstairs and a bunch of idiots were playing with firecrackers." It wasn't a lie, unlike his previous excuses. His apartment had been getting colder and darker lately, so he tend to lay on his back and watch lights swim across his ceiling, dampened by curtains. The shadows would envelope his room like a giant hand and enclose him in its palm. Then shots of firecrackers punched holes in his brittle security and he sat up sweating and holding his head to shut out the noise, the laughter and the feeling of warm metal in his hands.

Ide closed the door behind him.

"That's it?" He asked Aizawa, waving his phone. "He probably isn't even going to do anything at all."

"Don't worry about it, Ide." Aizawa said.

"But what if they caught onto something we haven't?"

"They didn't."

Ide frowned. "They might have. We don't know."

"Just leave it," Aizawa said tiredly. "It's over, Ide."

"It's over," Matsuda echoed, then jumped up energetically to the door, which was currently being opened by a foot. "But lunch is only starting!"

Mogi entered lugging bagfuls of food.

"Mogi, my man! You're punctual," Matsuda said.

"Did you get me those red bean croissants?" Asked Ide.

Mogi was about to answer when a "Hey, you!" interrupted. They watched a cleaner charge towards them with a scowl. "You are dripping everywhere!" He pointed at Mogi. True to his words, a trail of orange liquid dotted to where it disappeared around the corner. "There's a pool in the elevator!"

Mogi looked into the bag. "It's Matsuda's Tom Yum noodles," He concluded.

"Sorry," Matsuda smiled apologetically at the cleaner, who huffed and left to mop up the spill. Ide closed the door.

"Well then," Matsuda sighed happily. "Lunch time."

Just when he was about to snap his chopsticks in flawless halfs, a knock sounded at the door.

"Come in," Aizawa said. "Yes?"

A nervous looking young woman poked her head in. "Is officer Matsuda here? Someone would like to see him."

_Here to see me?_ Matsuda wondered, but the rich aroma of his lunch overcame his curiosity. "I'm busy, sorry. Can they wait until after two?"

His answer was repeated on the other side of the door.

"Then," The unmistakable voice of Sayu Yagami pierced through Matsuda's thoughts, freezing a glacier in his gut. "Is there anyone else I can talk to who was also investigating Kira?"

There was a pause where Aizawa dropped his papers and Matsuda broke his chopsticks before Ide wrenched the door open. "Officer Matsuda has just finished his work. Would you like to come in?"

Sayu stepped cautiously around the door. Matsuda stood and felt the icy knot work itself up his windpipe. He mustered up courage and smiled.

"Hi, Sayu. Um," he suddenly noticed his steaming noodles still on the coffee table. It was horrendously exposed. "What is it you want to see me for?"

"Hi," She smiled politely, glancing around. Her gaze paused on Mogi's face before stopping on Matsuda. "Can I ask you some questions? It's about my dad, and Light."

Behind her, Ide mouthed, "who's that?" to a suddenly pale-faced Aizawa, who shook his head.

Matsuda grimaced. In truth, he had been expecting her to ask him that for some time. He just didn't think that she would come in scaring a roomful of police officers with the 'K' word and the entire task force with the 'L' word.

"About that," He searched for the right words nervously. "I can't tell you, I'm sorry."

"What?" She stared at him. "Why can't you?"

"I'm…very sorry. I really can't."

"Why is everyone like that?" She clenched her fists in frustration. "It's my right! Why can't I know?" She breathed in with suppressed anger. "It's my family."

Matsuda looked away. What else could he say? It was not like he didn't understand her distress. He wouldn't begin to imagine waking up one day and someone told him his father and brother had died under suspicious circumstances but there was no need to worry about it because it was none of his business. Not that he had a brother or a father he'd really miss, but still.

"Sayu, this is not just about Light or the chief," He tried. "It's about Kira, and lots of people out there."

Sayu crossed her arms in front of her. "I know it's confidential, I just want to know. I'm not going to tell people if that's what you are thinking." Her voice was laced with frustration.

"I understand," he said. "I'm really upset too but I also have my reasons…"

"No, you _don't_ understand," She cried. "Don't compare your grief to mine. What do you know?" Matsuda watched her with rising fear. When he opened his mouth she cut him off. "I lost my _father. _My _brother. What the hell do you know?" _She drew in a ragged breath. "All it is to you is a swap from one nagging boss to another, isn't it? You don't know anything, Touta Matsuda. You really don't know anything!"

It was as if someone opened all the blinds and sunlight shattered over his retina in an awful batter of colours. Sayu deflated and covered her face with her hands.

_Soichiro Yagami_. Matsuda would be lying if he said he didn't feel something for the man that was not beyond just respect from a young subordinate. The chief was a special presence that was more than a boss, a friend. His words were lanterns that lit up the shadows of the tangled roots that were his own family. Then the wind blew out the fire inside and swept them all away. It was only then he realised the warmth was never his and it was pathetic to even mourn the loss of the light.

"Your mother told me," Matsuda said numbly. He felt like a rock statue, cracked and crumbling away.

"Told you…?" Sayu tried hard to calm her breathing.

"Your mother told me not to tell you," He repeated. "She doesn't want you to get hurt."

"My mum…," She murmured.

The clock ticked coldly on the wall.

"Oh, I'm-I'm sorry, Matsuda," She shifted anxiously and bit her lips. "I'll leave now." She yanked the door open and dashed outside. Her fading footsteps resonated hollowly inside Matsuda's mind.

* * *

"Impressive," Light said. "You are surprisingly assertive sometimes." Sayu ignored him. He tried again. "Matsuda looked rather hurt. Do you think you've made him cry?" No response.

Light sighed and sat down on the 'ground'. He was sure she heard him; how else would she have known Matsuda's first name? When he first spoke he wasn't sure she would hear. Now that his doubts were dispelled, she wouldn't talk to him.

"Sayu, talk to me."

Sayu found an empty table in the corner of the food court. She stared at the jug of soy sauce in front of her in silence. A group of noisy school kids walked past, the smell of fries spilling from their trays. Light wondered whether Sayu would like fries too.

"Sayu, do you want to get something to eat?"

Sayu sniffled and flipped open her phone. "Akane, have you had lunch yet?" She paused. "Yeah. I'm next to the soup place in that food court across the…."

Light wanted to throw something.

Akane turned out to be a tall, lanky girl he had never seen before. She was clad in a shapeless grey trench coat and a black ponytail that swished around her make-up-free face. _That type, _Light thought. The sort that could be described as Misa Amane's opposite. _She is probably studying maths, or medicine._ "Something that is not fashion design," he mused to Sayu.

Akane had a plateful of Malaysian food Light could not name and Sayu settled for a bento. It was oily and nowhere as good as their mother's cooking. Since Sayu retained ownership of her body Light had discovered, to his delight, that everything Sayu felt, he could feel it too. Touch, smell and taste were no exception. He was a dead man that could _eat_. _Isn't it a privilege?_ He asked himself only half sarcastically. Even if it was food that he had warned Sayu not to get.

"So, what happened?" Akane asked. Sayu picked at her prawns. She left the rice balls alone. They were displayed as repulsively pink teddy bear heads amongst a seaweed jungle and Light was glad Sayu decided they were too cute to be consumed.

"I went to see a psychiatrist this morning. Apparently she knew me longer than I know her," Sayu said. Akane frowned in confusion, she opened her mouth to ask but Sayu continued. "We talked about my nightmares and she said I'm okay."

"What about your fear of fragile things?"

"She said to take things slowly," Sayu munched. "She said I can stick with plastic and metal for now. I can get back to glass and porcelain when I get more confident."

"That's good," Akane chewed thoughtfully.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure about the nightmares though. I kept dreaming about the same thing again and again and it was just…scary."

"I don't like it either," said Light.

"What is it about?" Akane asked. "Don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"It's…pretty hard to describe," Sayu scrunched up her face. "I'm trapped inside this place with a lot of broken glass, and I keep chasing after my brother. I always see his back but I could never catch up," She hesitated and watched Akane's face carefully. "Lately I've been hearing his voice too."

"That's good, isn't it?" Said Akane. "It means you might just be able to catch up with him soon."

"No! I don't mean in my dream," Sayu said, exasperated. "I've…it's actually just started today."

Akane's eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. Sayu put down her chopsticks glumly. "I know it sounds crazy. I think I'm going mad, Akane."

"No you're not," Akane said soothingly.

"You're not mad, Sayu." Light said. "I'm right here!"

"Argh!" Sayu dropped her head to the table and covered it with her arms. "He just said something to me!"

Akane patted her back comfortingly. "What did he say?" Her voice was a mixture of sympathy and curiosity.

"He said he's…ugh, shut up, Light!"

Light shut up.

Not because Sayu said so, but because if this was to drag on, the result might involve more Dr Onoda and white walls.

The two girls sat in slack silence, until Akane broke it softly.

"Can I ask you something about your father and brother?" It was almost exactly the same question Sayu had fired off at Matsuda twenty minutes ago.

"I don't know anything. My mum doesn't want me to know anything," Sayu's muffled voice seeped through her jacketed arms.

"But before, you said," Akane spoke cautiously. "that you think they were killed by Kira?"

Sayu lifted her face from the table and pressed her lips into a thin line. "Why do you want to know?"

Akane swept her gaze over Sayu's head and around them. There was nothing but concrete walls behind their backs. "I've rather complex reasons, but I promise I won't tell other people. And besides, it's not like Kira can hear you." She attempted a laugh.

Sayu narrowed her eyes. "I'd like to hear those reasons."

Akane sighed.

"It's actually not that complicated," She looked at Sayu. "The truth is, I'm investigating Kira."

"What?" Sayu gasped. Light sat up from where he was lying.

"Shh," Akane grabbed her shoulders and glanced at nearby people's stares. "You're too loud."

"Really? I mean, wow," Sayu babbled. "I never thought you're secret police material. I mean, you've always been…"

"No, I'm not with the police or the army, Sayu," Akane said to her seriously. "It's my part time job at a private agency. And no one knows about this. That's why I didn't want to tell you."

"Oh," Said Sayu. She chewed on Akane's words. "So you're…it's kind of like my dad's team."

Akane snapped to attention. "Your father was…?"

"Yeah," Sayu looked down forlornly. "He was the head of NPA. He was working on Kira's case." She shook her head. "At least it's over now. And anyway, why are you still looking into it, now that Kira's already caught?"

"Your father caught Kira?" Akane asked, shocked.

"They must have," Sayu answered indignantly. "Kira stopped killing, didn't he?"

Akane frowned. "Yes, but we don't know that he's gone for good."

"Of course he is!" Sayu cried heatedly. "My father took him down. He caught Kira!" _And paid with his life._

Akane hesitated. Light watched her eyes dart everywhere in a mental battle with herself. She sighed and hugged Sayu lightly.

"Maybe you're right, Sayu," She said. "I'm sorry."

* * *

_Light was treading on glass again._

_He had decided, after days of trekking through the same endless maze, that he really, really hated it. Why wouldn't Sayu choose something else to dream about? There were plenty of other things to be scared of; she just had to choose a place where he had nowhere to sit to stage her nightmares. So he kept moving, because it was easier to keep one's balance while walking than when standing still. _

_The strange nature of dreams dictated that he was in clothes that were at least five years old. Now he thought about it, those light blue trousers and black dress shirt were still in his wardrobe, and he wore them sometimes, separately. It was the combination that was odd. If he had remembered correctly, they had been part of a large wardrobe collection from when he was staying at the Task Force's headquarters, temporarily chained to a now-dead man. They were brand new back then. The last time he had worn the two together was the day L ceased to exist. It was strange Sayu would know of it, and assign it to him in her dream._

_He heard calling somewhere in the distance. Sayu was closer than usual tonight. He glance around and noticed a group of shards that were taller than the rest, sort of like the alpha tree in a forest. He clambered towards it tiredly. Hopefully it was worth the effort. _

_It was._

"_Look what I found," He said to himself dully. "It's a glass chair."_

_Before he could decide what to do with it, a scream mixed with the crunching of glass shattered his thought. A weight cannoned into his back and cold arms wrapped around him from behind. _

"_Sayu…" He whispered._

"_Light," She sobbed brokenly. "Light!"_

_He smiled and waited. She did not let go._

"_Why did you leave me?" She asked. Her breath was warm in the jaggedly frozen setting. "Why did you and Dad go after Kira? Why did you leave Mum and me?"_

"_I'm sorry, Sayu." Maybe he was. If he had been a little more careful, he might still be alive. _

_He turned to face her. "At least I'm here," He smiled._

_She shoved him hard. "That's not funny!" He stumbled backwards into a spiked armrest. "Do you know how…how sad we've been and all you do is make horrible jokes!"_

_She fell silent. Light held her gently at arm's length. "Sorry."_

_She wiped her eyes. "I know it's only a dream, but don't leave yet, okay?"_

"_Sayu," Light said patiently. "You know that's not true. I've been talking to your all day yet you still won't accept the fact that I'm not just a figment of your imagination."_

_Sayu sniffled and evaded his eyes. "You are a real jerk, you know that?"_

_Light sat her down on the seat. She continued. "If you really are real, then," She took a deep breath. "How did you die?"_

_Light pondered whether to tell her. It would make his life more interesting if she did not know. But this 'life'…_

"_A heart attack," He said. _

"_No," she gasped. _

"_Yes," Light insisted._

"_Shut up!" She cried and pushed him away. "Just…shut up."_

_Storm clouds seemed to gather above them and Light heard a distant rumbling. It seemed to increase in volume slightly and the humid air prickled the skin on his neck. Light had not seen rain in here. He hoped they did not rain glass pieces._

"_I don't understand," Sayu broke the silence. "What is it about Kira that make you and Dad chase after him so madly? Why can't you just leave him be, like everyone else?" _

_Light smiled thinly at the sky. "Who knows? Maybe the guy's got charisma."_

"_Quit joking around! You chose him over Mum and me. You and Dad!" She retorted angrily. "Just because you died chasing a criminal doesn't mean you are right! Do you know all that wreckage you leave behind?" She breathed shakily. "It's all heaped onto Mum. You're so selfish!" _

_Light's patience was dwindling. He didn't want to deal with his sister when her mind set was like that of a ten year old. True, she had a point, but Soichiro was the one she should be ranting to._

"_It's all your fault," Sayu sniffled. "He always listened to you. If you hadn't said 'I support you' that time he wouldn't be dead right now. _You_ wouldn't be dead!" _

_Light's eyes widened and he twisted around to face her. "How the hell is it my fault?" He snapped. "He was bent on catching Kira. I was only…" His voice caught in his throat._

"_Only what?" Sayu sneered through her tears. "Doing your duty as his son? Is that why you followed him chasing after Kira? How caring," She paused momentary to catch her breath. For the first time in his life Light wanted to slap his sister. "Now that Kira's caught, He is dead. _You_ are dead. Are you happy, huh? Is it worth it?" _

_Light took a step back. His heel dug a trench through crude splinters and his calf bumped against cold glass. Then he laughed._

"_Really, Sayu?" He said scornfully. "Even when Akane's spelt it out for you, you still believe Kira's gone?"_

_Sayu looked at him, fear and disbelieve crept across her features. _

"_How childish is that?" He continued maliciously. "To think Kira's caught just because your dad died. People die, boohoo. Why does every death has to have a meaning? Why does everything need to be balanced by a 'worth' in that brain of yours?"_

_His words tore at her viciously, cutting deeper than the wind that had whipped up from nowhere. _

"_No!" She clenched her eyes shut and screamed. "Shut up! Shut up!"_

"_Just face it," He snarled coldly. "He didn't die for Kira. He didn't die for justice. It was all worthless! He died for nothing!"_

_Black lightning discharged explosively from overhead. The air opened up rips that crashed viciously into the surrounding glass. Static rolled across their surroundings in a monochrome chatter and panic crawled frantically over Light's heart. He shielded his face and hunched over the chair. Then the world exploded._

Sayu woke up screaming. She clawed at her head hysterically until Sachiko burst into the room. She restrained her daughter forcefully until she stopped crying.

The one who calmed eventually was no longer Sayu.

"I'm alright now, Mum," Light Yagami smiled at Sachiko. "I'm back."

* * *

**Next chapter – Light is on the move! O.o**

**I hope you didn't find it rambly and melodramatic. Now all the initial drama is out of the way, the next few chapters will be much more plot-filled and have less yelling, I hope. My sister just told me that there's no such thing as an alpha tree, and they are called emergent species which are measured by their trunk size, not height. But who cares? Certainly not Light.**

**The more I write the more it feels like this is not going to be 5 or 6 chapters long. Maybe 10, even 12? I have no idea. The main reason that it is elongated is a horribly holey plan in the beginning that is currently being patched up by more plot. So far it's gotten rather large and messy.**

**Here is something pretty important that I should have addressed earlier:  
This story takes place after the anime ending, not the manga ending. I'm just being rambly because you might have noticed that by now. I'll just make this a little clearer.  
Because it is the anime ending, Mikami is dead and Near didn't burn the notebook. I've also dismissed the special manga because of reasons you will see later. However, the anime does truncate some things which creates plot holes and lack of explanation in some places, so I'll say this story's plot is built on the manga cannon except for the ending, which follows the anime. Sometimes it might get a bit blurry. **

**One more thing, there is no Light/OC, since Light is...technically, you know. Sorry if that's what you're hoping. **

**Phew, now I've said all that, please don't hesitate to drop a review so I'll know what you guys think of this story!**


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